Atomic City 1/12 Mercury - Chimp First?

Probably little chance of the figure. How many aftermarket human astronaut figures are there? As for markings, aside from the standard stenciling; I imagine there were little or none, of the "unique" markings such as those applied to the six manned capsules. But, I welcome someone to actually do the research and prove my theory wrong!

:o)

I TOLD you to use a 6" duct on that paint room. I think the fumes are getting to you!

-John

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (who me?) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

What about the Mon-kee? Some banana beer in a cooler next to the seat and....

Dunno about the 1/12 scale chimp availability, but I am almost certain that "Ham" flew in an early version of the Mercury spacecraft - one with a round, porthole-style window and and having the heavy, raised, smooth-finished hatch.

I think Scott's coming Mercury capsule model has the later rectangular shaped window and a corrugated, shingled hatch.

Kevin

Alan Shephard also flew in this early version; as the latter "style" had not been completed by the time of his flight.

You might check the figure size of the ?chimp? released with the drop ship from Planet of the Apes, the movie that came out a couple of years ago with Mark Walberg. I saw the capsule at Wonderfest a couple of years ago, and judging by its size think the chimp would be close to scale. Should be able to obtain it on ebay???? Signature BCNU jack

"jack" wrote

The chimp was piloting a spacecraft in a scene my wife called "Curious George goes to the Moon".

KL

A favorite entry from a favorite David Letterman "Top Ten List":

Top Ten Books NOT Recommended By The American Library Association

6) "Curious George and the High-Voltage Fence"

The kit comes with tons of technical markings and all 6 manned-mission logos, though the 'crack' is not included for the Liberty Bell 7 scheme. We just plain ran out of room on the sheet!

The instructions contain information on the placement of some technical markings, particularly Sigma 7. Finding photos that have these markings clearly shown is a real problem as most of the shots that were taken involved the astronaut getting in or out of the capsule. All the markings were hand-painted, but you have to look really close to see that as they look like stencils.

I have to say I and others have done extensive research and can not find a reliable reference that details all the markings. Most of them burned off the capsules on re-entry, which is why having access to Freedom 7 II was such a help-- it has all the markings and only a couple of others that were not on Sigma 7, so the placement chart in the instructions is fairly accurate. I'd sure like to meet the guy who can look at it and complain it isn't accurate-- he'd be a big help!

The instructions also contain a page showing how the kit can be converted to the earlier style capsule. The only thing that would be extra is some small pieces of .020 sheet styrene, which get laminated and shaped to form the hatch. For the chimp mission, or any unmanned mission, the builder would have to make the appropriate interior housings. Since the kit represents the manned missions, we didn't include these parts. Fortunately, those housings were designed to fit into the space occupied by the seat, so figuring out their sizes would be very easy if one had access to good photos. There is some info in a few NASA documents in the form of some very nice line drawings. Lastly, if anyone does decide to do one of these unmanned missions, they should check to see if the windows were installed or not. These have to be built if the capsule is to represent Freedom 7, but I'm thinking there is a chance the chimp mission may not have had them.

The kit will probably start showing up in stores on December 1.

Scott snipped-for-privacy@AOL.com

The 6" figures in that set are obviously 1/12 or close enough, so the chimp should be as well. I never measured mine, but it looks right.

While I would need to do some checking to confirm this, I do believe you are correct about the chimp flights not having the portholes. I'm pretty sure about the first, but there is a better chance thes second one might have had them. I may need to do an extra 1/48 one for this.

Dom

Hi Dom.

According to Mike Mackowski's "Spacecraft In Miniature, #5 - Mercury, A Guide for Scale Modelers", there were three chimp-manned (so to speak) Mercury flights.

The first two were flown on Little Joe boosters and the capsules were "boilerplate" models that had neither hatches nor windows. The respective occupants - 'Sam' and 'Miss Sam' - were ingressed and egressed by disassembling large components of the spacecraft.

The third and final chimp flight with 'Ham' was pretty near a dress rehersal for the Shepard flight which followed less than four months later. A suborbital flight, it used a Redstone booster and the capsule was evidently a near twin to Shepard's Freedom Seven: porthole windows and the heavy, smooth, bolted hatch.

Mike's book is about as good as it gets on the Mercury modeling scene. Check here for current availability:

Even if you don't get the book, there are some neato Mercury photos there.

Kevin